Sample training program: Usinage Fictif inc.

REF. 01What this program is based on

Purpose: to show that the content follows a recognized trade, and that the program meets the grant rules.

The content is based on the Quebec occupational standard "Machiniste sur machine-outil à commande numérique" (CNC machine-tool machinist). An occupational standard is the official list of skills for a trade.

This standard is part of Quebec's workplace apprenticeship program, the Programme d'apprentissage en milieu de travail (PAMT). In this Quebec program, an experienced employee, the mentor, trains an apprentice in the plant. The sector committee in charge is PERFORM (industrial metal manufacturing). This standard leads, among others, to the setter-operator and programmer-setter certificates.

We keep the essentials: setting up the job from the drawing, running the machine while monitoring it, correcting the program when needed, measuring your parts and doing basic maintenance.

This program is not the PAMT and leads to no certificate. If you want to enrol employees in the PAMT, that is done with Services Québec, separately.

Here, everything is done with the federal government, through Service Canada. The Quebec standard only serves as a model for the content of the classes.

The federal rules applied below:

• training offered to all eligible employees in the unit in at least 40% of the weeks of the agreement (the Work-Sharing contract signed with Service Canada);
• no training the law already requires, no conferences;
• eligible costs: design and delivery (preparing the classes and giving them), materials, outside trainer fees, in-house trainer wages, administration capped at 15%;
• up to $1,000 per participant; training completed by March 25, 2028, at the latest.

REF. 02Who trains, who takes what

Purpose: to show that every employee in the unit is offered training, and to say who gives it.

The Work-Sharing unit is the group of employees who reduce their hours during the agreement. Employment Insurance pays them part of the lost wages. Here, the unit has 18 employees. They work 4 days; the shop is closed on Fridays. Training takes place on that Friday, when the machines are free.

The trainers are the two experienced setters. A setter prepares and adjusts the machines before production. Here, they act as mentors: they show how it is done, have people practise and correct them.

The two setters are not part of the unit. They keep their full schedule, to set up the reduced production and give the training. That way, each of the 18 employees in the unit is offered a session in every training week, without exception.

All 18 take track B. 16 take track A. Track A still keeps 18 seats: the rule requires training to be offered to every employee in the unit.

REF. 03Track A

CNC operator: from loading to setup

Purpose: so that an operator can set up their own machine for a known part, and the 5-axis centre already installed has trained operators.

The key word in this track is setup. It means getting a machine ready for a new part: holding the part, setting the tools, loading the program and getting the first part right.

A 5-axis centre is a machine that can also rotate the part. It machines several faces without the part being taken off.

6 modules · 20 h per participant

• Module A1 · 3 hPrepare your station before touching the machine
• Module A2 · 4 hHold the part and tell the machine where it is
• Module A3 · 3 hRun a new part without breaking anything
• Module A4 · 3 hKeep parts good during production
• Module A5 · 4 hRead and edit a program at the machine
• Module A6 · 3 hWorking on the 5-axis centre

Sample: the full details of one module, to give you an idea.

Each module is detailed in the program we deliver to our clients: content, method, who trains, how it is assessed. Get a written assessment on the home page.

REF. 04Track B

Getting the shop ready for new Canadian customers: drawings, tolerances, first part

Purpose: to replace U.S. orders, you have to read new customers' drawings and deliver a conforming first part the first time.

Two words come up. A tolerance is the allowed variation around a measurement on the drawing. The first part is the first one in a run: it is measured in full before the others are made. The result is written in a first-article report.

5 modules · 15 h per participant

• Module B1 · 3 hRead a part drawing
• Module B2 · 4 hUnderstand tolerances
• Module B3 · 3 hMeasure a part properly
• Module B4 · 3 hCheck the first part and fill in the report
• Module B5 · 2 hWhat to do with a bad part; review

Each module is detailed in the program we deliver to our clients: content, method, who trains, how it is assessed. Get a written assessment on the home page.

REF. 0526-week schedule

Purpose: to prove that training is offered in at least 40% of the weeks of the agreement. Otherwise, the business is not entitled to the grant.

The fictitious agreement runs from Sunday, November 22, 2026, to Saturday, May 22, 2027. Each training week has one session, on the Friday off. It is given in two half-days, so that each group gets its turn at the machine.

week with training offered (11)week without training (15)

11 weeks out of 26, or 42%. The minimum is 10.4 weeks, so 11. The Christmas and New Year's weeks (weeks 5 and 6) have no training.

The modules end on April 16, 2027. The assessments at the machine take place by May 7, 2027, at the latest (week 24). That is before the agreement ends, and well before the March 25, 2028, deadline.

the part made in A3 is used in B4

REF. 06Budget

Purpose: to show the total amount requested, under the allowed cap.

Numbers made up for illustration. The item-by-item breakdown (trainer hours, materials, outside trainer) is in the program we deliver to our clients.

Total: $11,792 out of a cap of 18 × $1,000 = $18,000

The income top-up is an amount added to the employees' Employment Insurance benefits in each training week. It must go entirely to the employees.

• The income top-up does not count toward this cap: the grant funds it on top of the $1,000 per participant, along with your share of Employment Insurance and pension plan contributions (QPP or CPP) on that top-up.
• Its amount depends on each employee's wages and benefits. You calculate it in the grant's official calculator, which asks for each employee's SIN and benefit rate: we never receive this information.
• No equipment purchases: the measuring instruments and the machines are the shop's own.
• No spending before the agreement with the government is signed.
• Amount not guaranteed: Service Canada decides.